Current Exhibition

Martin Ball
Recent Portraits
10 - 27 August 2011

Do you recognise these people without their paintbrushes, dancer's grace or glitter?

Martin Ball has extended his recent theme of portraits of artists in Recent Portraits, with representations of Tai Royal, Sara Hughes, Sofia Tekela-Smith, Max Gimblett, Jacqueline Fahey and Reuben Paterson.

Some of the works are dauntingly large and all are cropped intimately close to the faces of his subjects, however Ball has managed to instil a distinct feeling of softness to his portraits. Each face gazes off to the side, as if in a moment of thought. This averted gaze, although traditionally used in portraiture to indicate a position of powerlessness, here seems to put the artists on a different plane to the mere viewer - they seem placed in a higher sphere of artistic being.

Although Ball leaves no trace of himself in his canvases, and makes no reference to any of the artist's works in their portraits, the paintings nevertheless strongly call to mind the idea of the artist's presence in art. As they in turn become known for their visual creations, so too they are turned into a visual object by Ball.